


Paint my Soul in your Colors

by christallized



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Romance, Soulmate AU, help i cant summary, oh yeah its feel goods time babi, wholesome bois
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25711204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/christallized/pseuds/christallized
Summary: When two soulmates are are about to meet, their soul marks become larger and more intricate.Nathaniel's mark just activated.A Marc/Nath Soulmate AU
Relationships: Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 94
Collections: MarcNath Fics!





	1. Nathaniel's Mark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mnoeln](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mnoeln/gifts).



“Soulmates,” Alix began, standing in front of the art room.

Rose, Juleka, and Marinette sat in front of her, listening intently. Nathaniel was as far away from the spectacle as the room's space would allow.

“Some people got em. Some people don't. Some people pretend that they do to make other people think they're cool or to convince their fifth-grade crush to actually go on a date with them. When two soulmates are about to meet for the first time, their marks become...larger and more intricate. Activated, you could say. Or, at least, that's what Google told me.”

“We know this,” Rose said, a little annoyed that Alix had torn her out of her intense lyric-writing daze but too kind to show it.

Marinette nodded. “Yeah, why bring this up now?”

“Because,” Alix began dramatically as she pointed a finger to the red-head hiding in the corner, “Nathaniel has an active soulmate mark.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Ooooh!” Rose squealed, her previous annoyance vanishing instantly. “Who is it? Show us!”

“Congratulations,” Juleka said, giving a quiet smile.

“Why didn't you tell us?” Marinette asked, her eyes alight.

Nathaniel was looking very much like he would rather be anywhere else. “It's not a big deal,” he muttered, hiding behind his sketchbook.

Rose looked like she was going to strangle him. “What do you mean it's not a big deal?” She practically ran towards him, grabbing the startled artist by the shoulders and shaking him. “It's a soulmate! You have a soulmate!”

“Rose, let go of him,” Marinette said. Rose made an “oop!” sound and quickly backed away from Nathaniel's personal space.

The previously quiet, attentive energy had broken into an excited fervor as Marinette and Rose gushed over the idea that Nathaniel was one of the lucky few with a soulmate mark, and, by extension, a soulmate.

“I trusted you,” Nathaniel said, glaring at Alix and rubbing his shoulders where Rose had grabbed him.

“And I told you I was going to tell the rest of the art gang,” she shot back, putting her hands on her hips. “You knew this was coming.”

Nathaniel groaned, placing the sketchbook firmly in front of his face so no one could see his expression. His ears, however, were visibly red and flushed with embarrassment.

“Is it alright if we...see your mark?” Marinette asked.

The Art teacher, who had been watching from a distance, chose that moment to step into the conversation. “Kids,” he said. “Let's not make Nathaniel uncomfortable. A soul mark is a very personal thing.”

“No, no, it's fine,” Nathaniel said. “Just...don't be weird about it, okay?”

Juleka nudged Rose with a soft wink. Alix elbowed Marinette somewhat violently in the ribs.

“Ow!”

Staring intently at the floor, his whole face a brilliant shade of pink, Nathaniel slowly pulled off his jacket.

“Whoa,” Marinette said. Rose pressed her lips together to keep from squealing again. Even Juleka let out an awed breath.

Nathaniel's shoulders and forearms were covered in a dazzling pattern of rainbow colors, spiraling out from under his sleeves and billowing out at his elbows like a mantle. Intricate black and white triangles gathered at the edges of his mark. The pattern seemed to reflect in the light, creating the illusion of a twirling and shifting river of color under his skin.

“That's a huge mark,” Rose said, grabbing Juleka's arm. “I've never seen anything like it!”

Nathaniel seemed to curl more into himself under their scrutiny. “It wasn't always like this,” he muttered. “It's started growing in the past few weeks.”

Marinette was practically bouncing in her seat. “That means you're going to be meeting your soulmate soon!” She exclaimed.

“Huh?”

“It's an activated mark,” Marinette said. Nathaniel shot her an _I already knew that_ look, and she chuckled apologetically.

Juleka nodded. “A few days before I met Rose, flowers appeared all over my right leg.”

Rose grinned. “And I have a fancy pattern on my stomach! Nothing as colorful or detailed as yours, though.”

Nathaniel rubbed his mark thoughtfully, tracing a finger across the rainbow pattern. “What do you think it...this mark...means?”

Alix grinned. “If you want my personal opinion,” she said, “I think your soulmate is gay as fuck.”

The art teacher gave her a stern frown.

“As frick,” she corrected. “Your soulmate's gay as frick.”

“Oh,” Nathaniel said.

Marinette studied the artist boy's face. “How does that make you feel?” She asked, her voice calm and even.

Nathaniel blinked. “Fine, I...I guess,” he said. “I mean, it doesn't really matter to me if my soulmate's a boy or a girl or...whatever. As long as they're...nice.”

“So sweet,” Rose cooed. Nathaniel made a stuttering noise and abruptly faced away from the rest of the group.

“Well then,” Alix said, making a motion of brushing dirt off her hands and standing straight, like a military Sargent about to give orders. “Here's the plan. All of you, I want you to keep your eyes and ears peeled. If anyone starts talking about someone's soulmate mark growing or being activated, you find them and you _track them down_ , got it?”

“You really don't have to do that,” Nathaniel insisted.

“I do,” Alix shot back. “What if you just...pass by your soulmate one time and then never meet them again? That's what happens to most marked people. We're going to make sure you find your soulmate _and keep_ them.”

“Please don't make a big deal about this.”

“We're not going to,” Marinette assured him. “We're going to do this stealthily.”

“Fly on the wall style,” Rose added.

Juleka mimed zipping her lips.

~oOo~

“Do you know anyone who's soulmate mark just activated?” Rose announced the second she and Juleka entered the classroom.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Nathaniel whispered under his breath.

“Hmm...” Max tapped at his phone. “I have not heard of anyone with an activated soul mark in this vicinity.”

Mylene shook her head. “Nope, sorry Rose.”

Nino raised an eyebrow. “Why are you asking now, all of a sudden?”

“Oh! Because-” Juleka quickly placed a hand over Rose's mouth.

“Because nothing,” Juleka said, a little louder than the class was used to hearing her.

Alya straightened, leaning forward at her desk. “Well now you gotta tell us,” she said, pulling out her phone with a practiced motion. “We know your soul mark has already been activated, so you're doing this for someone else, right?”

Rose shook her head, Juleka's hand still over her mouth.

“Stop prying, Alya,” Alix cut in. Alya turned the phone towards her.

“Do you know something about this, Alix?” Her eyes seemed to sparkle as an idea came to her. “Do YOU have a soulmate mark?”

Alix waved a hand. “Of course not,” she said.

“All this talk about soulmates is ridiculous,” Chloe scoffed. “They're probably not even real.”

“You're just saying that because you don't have a soulmate mark,” Alix challenged.

Chloe flipped her hair over her shoulder. “So what? Why would you want to have a soulmate, anyway? What if they're poor? Or ugly?”

“Well thank god no one's unlucky enough to have a soulmate as shallow as you,” Marinette said. The class stared at her, and she blinked innocently. “Did I say that out loud?”

Alya snorted.

“That's not funny,” Chloe spat, shooting a look at Marinette. “You don't have a soul mark either, Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette shrugged. “Lots of people don't,” she said. “People fall in love all the time without them, you know.”

With the current situation seemingly forgotten, Nathaniel let out a slow breath. Alya was now relentlessly teasing Marinette, and Alix gave Nathaniel a sly nod.

“Hey,” Rose said, turning to Juleka. “We have a free hour after this class. Do you want to come to the art room with me after class to work on our music?”

“I...I have to go to the library after class,” Juleka muttered. “Sorry.”

“No problem!” Rose hugged her girlfriend. “I'll work on writing lyrics for our song then! You can check it out after school!”

Juleka smiled. “That'd be great, Rose. Thanks.”

Secretly, Nathaniel edged his jacket a little off of his shoulders to glance at his soul mark. The iridescent colors seemed to glow in the dark under his jacket, gradients from the entire color spectrum fanning out across his shoulders.

Whoever his soulmate was, they certainly had good taste.

~oOo~

“Marc! You made it!” Marinette rose from her desk and ran to the art room's entrance, pulling in a very pretty black-haired boy with green eyes.

And Nathaniel's heart skipped a beat.


	2. Marc's...well...

Nathaniel screwed up.

He knew it the second he tore Marc's notebook in half and stormed away, a part of his heart tearing with him.

Fuming, he walked away from the park, away from everything that had just happened. His mind was whirling, and he just wanted to be home already.

Part of him was angry. He'd been lied to! Marinette was making a fool of him!

Another part of him was broken. Why would Marc do that to him? He seemed so nice, and trustworthy. Nathaniel wanted to trust him, thought he was an honest person, shy, kind.

Maybe he was.

Marc hadn't acted like Chloe or Sabrina when they bullied him, sneering and laughing in his face. He'd seemed shocked.

Nathaniel hesitated, looking up at where Marinette's balcony was. She wasn't there at the moment. Should he go back? Was it a misunderstanding?

It had to be. Maybe something had gone wrong. Or maybe he was right and Marc was just a bully, like Chloe.

Indecision grappled at Nathaniel's heart, and he stopped walking.

It wouldn't hurt to at least hear him out, would it?

 _It definitely would,_ his mind told him, even as his feet turned back to the park. _He could be mean after all. He might laugh at you._

But even as his mind talked against it, something in his heart remained, something he couldn't place, drawing him to Marc like a magnet, insisting that Marc was a good person, that everything he'd assumed was wrong.

He returned to the fountain in the park, only to find the place empty. Even the pigeon man had disappeared, along with his birds. Marc's journal was gone. It was completely quiet.

Shit.

~oOo~

When Nathaniel finally did see Marc again, it was after he had been akumatized.

The artist boy felt like he'd swallowed a bag of rocks. How could he have been so blind, so....so selfish? Looking at the boy now, sad and quiet, he only felt worse.

“Marc and Nathaniel?” Ladybug approached them, facing them towards each other.

“By now you realize there was a big misunderstanding.”

_Understatement of the century._

“But if you give each other a chance, I'm sure you'll find out how well you can work together.”

Would Marc even _want_ to work with him now?

Nathaniel did the only thing he could do and offered his hand. He had to make peace somehow. He had to make this right, even if Marc hated him.

To his surprise, Marc didn't sneer or look angry. He smiled and placed his hand in Nathaniel's.

Nathaniel felt some of the weight in his stomach lift. Marc didn't completely hate him after all.

Chat Noir smiled. “A bit like you and me, M'lady. Pound it!” He pulled his hand back from the fistbump as his ring began to flash. “Well, gotta go!”

“Me too,” Ladybug said. “Mayor Bourgeois, can you get these two boys back home?”

“I'll arrange a means of transport at once, Ladybug!” The Mayor stuck out his chest proudly.

“Thank you,” she said. “Bug out!”

Soon enough, a car rolled up to the side of the road, and a man in a suit and bowtie opened the door for Marc and Nathaniel.

“Well, I have to return to my speech,” Mayor Bourgeois said with a nod to the man. “Enjoy your ride.”

“Thank you, Mayor Bourgeois,” Nathaniel said. If anything could be said about the Mayor, at least he was kinder than his daughter.

The two boys settled into the back seat, and the car began moving, smoothly streamlining along the road in the way that only an expensive car could do.

Nathaniel glanced over at Marc. He was looking out the window, hugging his arm to his chest.

“Look,” Nathaniel said. “I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions way too quickly. I'm used to being tricked and bullied a lot, and things have been a little stressful lately. I shouldn't have taken it out on you.”

Marc turned his head. “It's okay,” he muttered.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Marc said, picking at the hem of his fingerless gloves. “Things have been a bit stressful for me, too. Ever since my soul mark activated I've been a little anxious and...on edge.”

Nathaniel froze.

Marc bit his lip, a hint of red on his cheeks. “Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you with something so personal.”

“Your...soul mark....?” Nathaniel breathed.

Marc gave him an odd look. “Are you feeling okay?” He asked.

Nathaniel choked. “Yeah, I...uh....”

The car rolled to a stop. “Monsieur Kurtzberg,” the butler said, opening his door. “Your house.”

“R-right,” Nathaniel said, stepping out. He felt unsteady on his feet.

“See you later,” Marc said, the hint of a hopeful lilt in his voice.

Marc was his soulmate. _Marc was his soulmate._

Everything seemed to fall into place. That feeling in his heart, the connection he felt the moment he'd been pulled into the art room, the nagging thought at the back of his head that kept drawing his mind back to the writer. Marc was his soulmate.

“Excuse me,” the butler coughed. “You're standing in the way of the door.”

Nathaniel whirled around to Marc. “Come with me,” he said.

Marc's face turned red with astonishing speed. “I...what?”

Nathaniel extended his hand.

“But...uh...my house...”

“I'll pay for your bus ride home,” Nathaniel said, a little impatiently. “Please, trust me on this.”

Apparently, Marc trusted him enough, because the writer took Nathaniel's hand and stepped out of the car.

“Thanks for the ride, sir,” Marc yelled back and Nathaniel dragged him up the front steps. “What are you doing?” He hissed.

“You said you have an activated soulmate mark, right?” Nathaniel said, a hint of desperation in his voice as he fumbled with the keys.

“Yeah,” Marc said. “But why-oh.” If possible, Marc's face turned even redder. “ _Oh._ ”

The door swung open, and Nathaniel pulled Marc inside.

The living room was unlit, with only a bit of light filtering through the curtains in the windows. Nathaniel paused to let his eyes adjust to the dim light. Marc closed the door.

It was only at that moment that Nathaniel realized what he had just done. He turned to Marc, who was standing at the door, shuffling awkwardly with one hand in his pocket, the other still on the doorknob.

“So, uh...” Nathaniel rubbed his hands together, his throat feeling dry. “I...also have an active soulmate mark.”

Marc rubbed the back of his neck, eventually walking over to an old leather couch and sitting down. “Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “So you think....that we're...”

Nathaniel nodded. “Yeah.”

There was a long silence, invaded only by the soft ticking of a clock in the hallway.

“Well.” Marc placed his hands on his knees. “Where...where is it? Your mark.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Nathaniel stammered, his hands feeling sweaty. He started to remove his jacket.

There was a soft inhale of breath as Marc saw the multicolored patterns running across his arms and into his sleeves, the black and white triangles that encircled the pattern-reminiscent of Reverser, Nathaniel thought with an amused and grim smile.

“Wow,” Marc whispered, in a way that made goosebumps rise on Nathaniel's arms.

“That's...that's not all,” he said, swallowing, even as his mouth refused to make saliva. After a moment to summon his courage, he lifted the hem of his shirt, and Marc let out an embarrassed squeak. “Sorry,” he said.

“No, you're good,” Marc's said, sounding strained. “I just...wasn't expecting you to...yeah.”

Nathaniel pulled his shirt over his head, letting Marc see the full pattern of his soulmate mark.

The lines dipped and swirled across his chest, turning from rainbow colors to red and green as they neared the center. And in the center was a simple pattern that stood out from the rest of the mark.

Two curves rose from the center of his chest, reminiscent of a heart. An elegant pattern, alternating in black and white, surrounded the centerpiece in tildes and diamonds and curves.

Nathaniel suddenly felt very self-conscious, without his shirt in a dimly-lit room with a boy he had just met, while the said boy shamelessly stared at his chest.

“Uh...Like what you see?” He joked, trying not to stumble over his words as Marc's eyes quickly snapped up to meet his.

“Y...yes,” he said, pulling his knees together and hunching forward a little, the blush that had begun to fade now rising up again on his face.

How do you respond to that? Marc had basically said to his face that he liked Nathaniel's body. Nathaniel could feel his ears burning with...embarrassment? Pride? Arou-no. No no. No no no. Bad thoughts.

“Cool,” he said, not sure what else to say. His voice cracked a little.

Marc drummed his fingers against his knees. “Well....” he said. “I guess I should...show you my mark?”

“Right. Yes. Please,” Nathaniel said, moving to sit on the couch as Marc stood up.

“Gosh,” Marc said, laughing a little as he moved to the place where Nathaniel had originally stood. “I...uh...”

“It's okay,” Nathaniel said. “Take your time.”

Marc nodded. “Got it.”

Nathaniel now understood why Marc had squeaked when he had taken off his shirt. Watching the other boy slip his shoulders out of his red hoodie, his heart was hammering at a thousand miles per hour. At some point, he closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, too embarrassed to look. He heard Marc laugh a little at that, which made his heart flutter wildly in his chest.

“You can open your eyes,” Marc said.

Nathaniel looked up. Marc had turned away from him, his back facing the artist. In between his shoulder blades was a flower-shaped mark.

The center was a spiral of black and white, with three dots in the center-yellow, magenta, and cyan. A pattern bloomed from the center into a mass of twisting black-and-white vines across his back. Hundreds of magenta, yellow, and cyan dots freckled across his back and shoulders, filling his skin with color.

Nathaniel didn't realize he had moved off of the couch until he was reaching forward and his fingers were brushing against Marc's shoulder blades. The boy jumped away with an “eep!”, turning to face Nathaniel with wide eyes-

“Sorry!” Nathaniel instantly raised his hands up and backed away. “Sorry, I didn't mean to, I was just-”

“It's okay,” Marc said, placing a hand over his heart. “You just startled me.”

Slowly, Nathaniel reached back to place his hand on Marc's back. He could almost believe that the mark was growing warmer under his touch, but that may have been the blood rushing to his face.

“Who'd have thought,” Marc said, still facing away from him, “that I'd meet my soulmate like this?”

Nathaniel winced. “You mean by shouting at you and turning you into an akuma?”

As Nathaniel ran a hand up and over Marc's shoulder, the other boy reached back and placed a hand on his, giving him a comforting squeeze.

“We can start over,” Marc whispered. “If you want to.”

Nathaniel leaned forward, resting his head against his soulmate's back. “Please.”

Nathaniel would have committed that mark to memory, but he didn't have to. He saw it again, a few months later in a janitor's closet on the school grounds. He saw it again on a school field trip to the beach. He saw it again in mornings full of sleepy smiles and tangled blankets, and he saw it during nights where neither of them slept much at all. He knew Marc's pattern better than he knew his own handprint, every line and shape and colorful freckle imprinted in his mind so fully that he could have drawn it in perfect detail if he wanted.

Nathaniel was happy, knowing a part of his soul was Marc's to keep, and Marc had a part of him, painted on their skin like a promise that would never fade.

Painted in their colors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art Art Art Art you know it, you love it:
> 
> https://christallizedaccomplice.tumblr.com/post/625534566145425408/some-art-for-a-marcnath-soulmate-fic


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